You say this but it's death by a thousand cuts, tons of building code is crap like "a kitchen has to have an extractor fan" because you know, opening a window l

You say this but it's death by a thousand cuts, tons of building code is crap like "a kitchen has to have an extractor fan" because you know, opening a window like Grandma did isn't good enough, wealthy people care about air pollution because they can afford to. Then there's zoning. Buying some tools, using some common sense and building a structure on a plot of land is accessible. Once you do everything "by the book" and allow no room for gradual upgrades (it all has to be there from day 1) it's now a profession and is essentially out of reach of the average person. I'm not in the US but I can afford to buy multiple homes now as a result of aggressively pursuing wealth when I was younger. Not everyone is in that position, most people are bus drivers or nurses or whatever and struggle to make rent.